Yet another instalment of single reviews from our regular contributor Philip Lickley from music blog .Wav Goodbye. If you want to contribute to All-Noise send your news, reviews or music opinions over to [email protected].
Kelly Clarkson- Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
[rating:3.5/5]
Buy Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
Continuing her theme tally of up-tempo, self-empowering songs, ‘Stronger’ wraps up her lyrical ode to coming out of relationships much stronger in a multi-layered track that is designed for fist-pumping whilst singing into a hairbrush, if that’s your sort of thing, with the lyrics destined to be pasted into Facebook statuses everywhere: a sort of speeded up ‘Beautiful’ by Christina. It’s not the most original track ever recorded and the music varies between rocking and over-production but it ticks the boxes of an enjoyable pop song with an easily singable chorus and positive words, and will be more of the same for her fans, which isn’t always a bad thing.
Kelly Rowland feat. Big Sean – Lay It On Me
[rating:3.5/5]
Buy Lay It On Me
Destined to be very popular in the clubs, in fact it probably is already, the repetitive chorus easily sticks in your head even if the track itself borrows from the genre quite heavily – from Rihanna’s nudge-nudge wink-wink lyrics to Nicole Scherzinger’s sex-appeal and the obligatory rapping opening and return before the final chorus push, this time delivered by Big Sean, all neatly wrapped up in a fun package. You’ve heard it all before but it’s not a bad track to throw on on a Friday night thanks to a great beat, piano track and lashings of attitude.
Maverick Sabre – No One
[rating:4/5]
Buy No One
Sounding like the cousin to Ms Dynamite’s ‘It Takes More’, Maverick Sabre’s silky vocals over a tight drum beat works really well on this mid-paced song with a chorus that quickly becomes catchy and it becomes one of those songs that you think you’ve known for longer than you have thanks to its mixture of familiarity and freshness. Throw in some strings and you have a cracking third release from the London singer with a distinctive enough voice to make him stand out in the charts.
Paul McCartney – My Valentine
[rating:4/5]
Buy My Valentine
Released with a certain memorable date in the calendar in mind, this Eric Clapton-featuring piano-led ballad is beautiful in its simplicity. Just Paul, a piano and some backing guitar, the lyrics may be overly sentimental but with the style of the song in mind this is a relaxing, laid-back listen that will go well for a romantic evening. His voice is allowed to shine on the recording and echoes some of the classic 1960s and 70s ballads.
Will.I.Am feat. Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger – T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)
[rating:4/5]
Buy T.H.E (The Hardest Ever) [Explicit]
Will.I.Am can surely get away with some dodgy lyrics and still look and sound cool. After the eye-brow-raising silliness of ‘My Humps’ back in the days of the Black Eyed Peas, we now get a song that makes two references to, erm, “morning wood” with a straight face. Questionable lyrics aside – “Hard like geometry / trigonometry?” for instance – that would be laughed at if sang by any other artist this is a song that you will hate on first listen, comparing it’s Benny Benassi ‘Satisfaction’ style backing to a hedge trimmer been left unsupervised, but after a few listens the production, Jennifer Lopez’s contributing vocals to the chorus and the general attitude of the song means its appeal will soon settle in. By the time you get to the tempo increase and Mick Jagger contributing possibly his most exciting cameo ever at the end you’ll appreciate the variety of this song that shouldn’t work but does. Top marks for production and the overall sound; not quite sure about the words.
